If you can read this then the transfer to the new hosting service is completed.

Although at the time I write this I know it is still not working properly. Looking up whois I can see that the domain registrar has changed, but the DNS is still pointing to the old hosting service. Grrrr. Looks like I’ll have to ask whats going on.

Of course the good thing is that if you can read this then you know I solved the problem!

Last winter we had an unwelcome busy little vistor running backwards and forwards across the ceilings. It disappeared during summer, but it, or one of its relatives, turned up again a few weeks ago.

Late one night recently it dropped down the shaft next to the bedroom where some pipes are. On purpose or by accident I don’t know, but it decided to make a home there – rather noisily as well. As it turns out we have an access panel to those pipes and when I opened it up there was a little brown face and black eyes staring back from behind the pipes.

So a couple days ago I put our mouse trap in there along with some poison sprinkled around for good measure. Next time I looked behind the panel there was insulation wool everywhere. It had obviously found a gap where some cabling went through the gibboard and made the most of it. Obviously from all the noise behind the wall it was party time in there. So I rearranged the wool and set up the trap again. Later that evening there was a nice “whack” from the bedroom. When I had a look there was lying between the pipes a rather larger creature than we had first suspected and it was still breathing! I went to grab a plastic bag, but just as I got back it staggered around in a circle and then shot back into the wall! Grrrrrrrr #%&£#!.

So more poison next to its hole and set the mouse trap up again with another dollop of peanut butter. Obviously since rodents are supposed to be rather smart I couldn’t believe it would fall for this and get brained again, but hope lives eternal. And it does too! After coming home yesterday and opening up the panel again there was a rather stiff furry beast lying there right next to the sprung trap. Although it had managed to eat all the peanut butter first! So I don’t know if it was the poison, getting whacked on the head twice, or both, but we got the little shit! Although it was a bit bigger than we first thought, so we should probably buy a bigger mouse trap!

And yes thats a rat, and yes that is a full size screwdriver, and a normal size mousetrap!

Seems we have a little buttercup dell sprouting down the back yard at the moment. A lots of stinging nettles as I found when I took the pictures :-(. Luckily they didn’t destroy it when they cleared the rest of the weeds (and wild flowers) from the part of the back yard that was being landscaped.

And the fields of rapeseed have come up now as well.

Just got back from an evening walk along the road. Its still about 21 this evening and the scent of the lupins out front is very strong.

The last few week all the wild flowers have come out in bloom starting with the dandelions and then the lupins and buttercups and many more I don’t know. We were thinking about spreading some wild flowers ourselves along the road, but it looks like we don’t have to bother.

The other side of the road from our driveway is covered in lupins and they have spread alongside our driveway as well. There is plenty of other flowers sprung up in the last few days as well. Shame that some of them will probably have to go when the final landscaping is done :-(.

Still a bit rough on occasion though. We had a reasonably strong wind from the north the other day and it managed to knock one of our trees over! Even though it had come out in leaf this summer I think it was partly rotten and had probably been damaged sometime during the building. One of the small pines in the back yard we were going to keep seems to have died as well, most likely a victim of the earlier earth moving.

Since spring has arrived so have all the animals, and not just the bugs. Rabbits have been popping out all over the place along with squirrels, usually making a mad dash across the roads. But as well as that there are some larger wildlife wandering around out here in the countryside.

Some of the local mooses (elk actually and there was three of them) have made their spring migration across our section heading for their summer patch. We have seen signs of them around before and while building the house, so their seasonal migration path probably includes our section. Don’t know if they move far for summer and winter, but they don’t seem to be here then, only for a time in autumn and spring. Although a bit closer to town we have seen some during winter.

But anyway, going by their departing presents they must have enjoyed a snack or two while they were here 🙂

It starts to really feel like spring now too. Although it has been fine and dry for several weeks and quite warm it was quite brown and nothing really growing. After some rain last week the grass shot up everywhere, the local lupins are growing like crazy. It rained overnight a couple of days ago again and this morning suddenly all the birch trees are out in leaf, basically just in the space of 24 hours!

Have been planning for along time to put up a gallery of some of the photos I have taken since getting my digital camera. Unfortunately (or maybe not depending on your viewpoint) the space issue keeps me from putting up more than just a small selection. Many I took mainly just to have a nice backdrop on the PC, but there are also a few others, landscapes, sunsets, or whatever else looked nice.

This first version of the gallery I put together in Picasa, a free photo organiser and editor now owned by Google. A very nice tool although a little limited sometimes. Very well done user interface and some very cool effects. The photo touch up tools rate a mention, especially the “I feel lucky” button. Sometimes it makes a mess, sometimes it works minor miracles! Anyway, one of the tools is to produce a web gallery, which it does a very nice basic one.

Sometime (one day) I hope to redo it with a proper gallery tool using my own template. I have a few candidates in mind, but this will do until I get around to it.

So, enjoy!

Did something about the lack of space for the website the other day. Rather than paying the exorbitant fees for the extra space I reduced the size of all the images I have been using. Previously I defaulted to 800×600 for most of the large pictures I had put online, but I reduced them to 640×480 and recovered over 10MB of space! Hopefully enough to last a while longer anyway.

I guess now I don’t have any excuses for not putting up our Texas trip and the latest house stuff :-(.

Our site is running out of space! We got 50MB storage with the web hosting and it is nearly full. Amazing how fast it all goes, I didn’t think we would actually use that much. And the next step is an extra 100MB, which they charge an arm and a leg for :-(. And I think our e-mail shares the hosting space, so that could cause problems as well.

Probably have to spring for it sometime or other though. I would like to add a few more things here like a photo gallery for snapshots and desktop photos. Unfortunately those tend to take up a bit of space for the larger ones. I could always find other hosting, but I’m sure that would be just as difficult. Apart from the price this place has been pretty much okay and their on-line services at least don’t suck.

Its snowing… again… Only this time a full snowstorm. Wind has been blowing all day and snowing for most of the afternoon and evening. Will be interesting in the morning.

Yesterday morning the snow was millions of sparkling diamonds in the sunlight.

Tonight it is up to the doorsteps…

and blowing everywhere.

During the night and today while I was at work the rest of the snow slid off the roof, oh joy…

About half of it is cleared away now.